My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic [Season 3]

Having a now three year old girl, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a reality in my life. She has a Rainbow Dash hooded towel, about 5 mini ponies, two massive ponies, lots of DVDs, and they’ve all been gifts. Everyone knows that little girls love them so they’re like a standard gift, so I don’t think you can go wrong with this DVD if you’re planning on buying it for a little girl. My daughter is so hooked she watches crazy women on Youtube opening boxes full of My Little Pony “blind bags”, she’d do this for hours if I let her.

Series Three opens up with a two-part episode “The Crystal Empire 1 & 2”. The Crystal Empire disappeared over 1000 years ago and has now reappeared. The evil King Sombra was responsible for the act and Princess Celestia fears he will return to use the empire against Equestria. Celestia gathers some ponies to assist Princess Cadence and Shining Armour in protecting the Empire. Twilight Sparkle is given the task of reviving the “crystal heart”, but this is no easy task as the heart is hidden and she must find it before King Sombra (who hid it), finds it. The inclusion of this realm freshens up the show a bit and is quite action packed.

Season Three seems to be a bit of a contentious season with many not happy about the finale and feeling that the season was a bit lackluster. I think the first two episodes are the most memorable, but y’know what kid is going to not like the episodes? For 15-30 year old viewers this season will not be as strong as the first 2 (apparently season 4 is awesome), but for those under 12 who just want a MLPFIM fix, they are going to love it. The other stand out episodes to me was “Too Many Pinkie Pies”, which was quite funny.

I can see why the show appeals to young girls, it’s so bright and colourful and has a lot of annoying catchy songs, I think it does appeal to a bigger audience than just 5-10 year olds, but still don’t get the Bronie thing. There is adventure, comedy, action and cuteness, so it is more than just a kids show and some plots and episodes are quite in-depth and the pony universe is quite expansive it’s impressive that little kids are so knowledgeable about it. I think its more reminiscent of 90s kids shows than todays dumbed down CGI video-game like toons. The stories are well written and have more substance to them, there’s lessons and morals, and the mane (main) characters are so strong and individual that they almost feel like real girls and not ponies. At first I thought I would never let my kid watch it but I think it does values and messages that kids can learn from.

This series is a bit shorter than others, with only three discs compared to the usual five. There’s 13 episodes in all, but still worth purchasing if you are a fan. There’s also some extras as always, which are:

The Crystal Empire (Disc One) – The Ballad of the Crystal Empire Sing Along and trailers.